Approximately every three minutes, a new diagnosis of a blood cancer is made. The most common blood cancers are leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma, which will account for 156,420 new people to be diagnosed in the United States in 2014. Approximately every 10 minutes, someone in the United States dies from a blood cancer. Blood cancers are diseases that can affect the bone marrow, the blood cells, the lymph nodes and other parts of the lymphatic system. These cancers disproportionately target young people, with leukemia being the most common type of cancer in children and adolescents younger than 20.
One type of blood cancer cell expresses a cell marker known as CD123 (IL-3Rα). Examples of blood cancer cells that express CD123 include blasts and leukemia stem cells. Diseases associated with the expression of CD123 include acute myeloid leukemia (AML), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS; low and high risk), acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL, all subtypes), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (DPDCN).
Currently, treatments for these diseases include over 50 individual drugs with others under study and in clinical trials. Radiation therapy (RT) is also commonly used to treat blood cancers and sometimes it is administered along with drug therapy. Immunotherapy, gene therapy and personalized medicine are also used. However, these therapies can have significant side effects and adverse reactions. Thus, there is a need for new and improved treatments for CD123 (IL-3Rα)-expressing blood cancers.